When the Pinelands Regional boys soccer team stepped off the bus outside Jackson Memorial High School and walked onto the pitch for its warmups, the expectation was to swipe a victory out from under the third-seeded Jaguars on Oct. 20.

“These guys, and myself included, thought they could win today,” said coach Nino Scotto di Carlo, whose sixth-seeded Wildcats reached the Shore Conference Tournament quarterfinals for the first time in program history but were knocked off by Jackson, 4-0.